We took our time getting started this morning. I worked on the blog after breakfast and chatted some more with our hosts, Loraine & Tony.

We got on I-10 and headed west. That road has lots of traffic and is fairly flat. It was a sunny and hot morning. At one point the bike said it was 94 degrees.

We thought it would be a good idea to stop at Buc-ee’s for gas. The gas prices were good, but there was general mayhem as there were just too many vehicles trying to get gas or lunch.

We went on a bit farther and had our lunch at a Tropical Smoothie store. Beth ordered a peanut butter – protein smoothie. (The picture is fuzzy. Sometimes my phone won’t focus properly.)

There are no pictures of the afternoon as it rained fairly steadily. Traffic on I-10 was horrendous. There were times when we moved at 20-30 mph for long stretches. We had to get off the highway a couple of times because of the rain. We arrived at our friends’ home around 6:30 p.m. and tucked the bikes and trailer into bed in the carport.

A word about our riding gear – We now have Aerostich Darien pants. Beth has an Aerostich Goretex jacket and I have a Klim Goretex jacket. They have been great. We don’t have to stop to put on or take off rain suits. Water puddles on Harley seats, so we get a damp backside, but the rest of us stays dry. Our Sena communicators, however, do not do well in rain. It is most important to be able to talk to each other when it’s raining so we’ve ordered Cardo waterproof communicators to replace the Sena units. They should be waiting for us in Grand Junction.